Please tell us what happened on the night of December 26th. Where were you? What happened to your family during the bombing? And what it was like after the bombing ended?

On the night of the 26th, I was home. My family had all been evacuated. But I had to stay home because I had some official business to attend to.

Could you describe things from the very beginning again?

On the night of the 26th I was at home with my mother, my brother and his wife and my sister and her husband. My father had been evacuated with my siblings and my nieces and nephews. There had been a few alerts that night, but by 10:30 p.m. I heard outbursts of gunfire, the rumbling of airplanes and large explosions and then I passed out. The shelter collapsed on me. The next morning I was taken to the hospital. Only later on did I find out that five members of my family had been killed: my mother, my sister and her husband, my older brother and my younger brother. My brother had evacuated, but he returned to the city that night to get some of his belongings and intended to leave the next morning. We never found his body after the bombing.

In the West they say that family relationship is very different over here in Asia. After the bombing what were your feelings?

I felt extremely bereaved at the loss of the members of my family.